


Bury me in memory around your throat

by ChicagosLights



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Blood and Gore, F/M, M/M, Magic, Violence, Witch Meredith, Zombie AU, Zombie!Pete, murder happens, underaged drinking, weird zombie fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:41:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26822338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChicagosLights/pseuds/ChicagosLights
Summary: Patrick Stump is your usual high school quiet kid, keeping to himself and working on his music passions. It's not unusual for the popular kids to try and rope kids that are either in the middle or the last rung on the social ladder for stupid things. This time though when Patrick gets roped into a trip to the cemetery after taking a book from a creepy, pretty shady antique shop he gets more than he bargained for and his worst nightmares can't even create what he and the 4 kids from his high school just unleashed.Real life zombies have nothing on what is hunting Patrick down.
Relationships: Meredith Allen/Andy Hurley, Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz, past Pete Wentz/Gabe Saporta
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Patrick Stump feels like a loser. 

He isn’t really bullied at school since he’s just the quiet kid with dorky glasses and different ugly knitted caps, he’s the kid that goes to the music room during lunch and works on his music because he can’t always do that at home. His friend count is, pathetically, 0, unless you count the kid in his science class that sits by him and seems to have decided that Patrick is his therapist. So really, Patrick _is_ a loser because not only is he the quiet music kid in high school that has a self-appointed friend but Friday afternoon in study hall he finds himself being roped into an after-school “adventure”. Dustin had practically been vibrating when he’d walked into science 2 periods ago, per usual Patrick just mumbled a hello which practically opened Pandora’s box with Dustin asking things that Patrick only half-listened to.

Now he sat at his table staring confused at Joanna Marks asking him if he liked chicken nuggets because that's all she and Kaylee could buy after school and if he didn’t like them then she’d just bring some peanut butter bars along. 

“Uh” was all Patrick said after that. 

Joanna snorted and turned around fully in her seat, she even had a notebook out “ _you’re_ Patrick Stump right? senior, the kid that likes music, has green eyes?” 

“Uh-blue with yellow” wow Patrick, it’s a wonder you aren’t followed everywhere with such eloquence “what-who exactly said I have green eyes? I’m really lost right now” 

She clucked her tongue and clicked the pen in her hands a few times “I can tell. Did Dustin lie or something when he said that you’re coming with us to that creepy store after school? If he did I’ll ask my boyfriend to punch him, playing a prank is pretty lame” 

_Oh,_ so that’s what Dustin had said “no he wasn’t lying but uh, he didn’t say where we were going or that there’d be multiple people….who else is coming?” 

“Me, you, Dustin, Kaylee, and Snowe” Patrick once again stared at her dumbly “Grace Snowe? She’s on the softball team. Look I’ll just bring the peanut butter bars anyway, Kaylee has a huge sweet tooth anyway. Are you going to ride with Dustin?” 

Patrick was still trying to get his brain to work after hearing Grace would be there when the Dustin question snapped him out of it “I’ve got a car of my own, I could just follow one of you guys” 

“Cool, see you then Patrick” with that Joanna turned back around. 

Patrick felt like he’d stepped in the Twilight Zone now, suddenly working on math wasn’t that interesting. What had Dustin said to him while he’d spaced off? The only creepy stores Patrick could think of was a shady record store downtown and a book store in the more upscale area that people were pretty sure coke was sold at. Besides that Patrick was more embarrassed that he was going on some kind of after school trip with 4 kids that were considered popular by high school society standards, he had a nasty feeling in his gut that this was going to be some kind of sick prank and he was going to go to school the next week getting bullied into the ground. If it wasn’t a prank though then what Patrick found himself freaking out about more as he started packing up his books at the bell ringing was that Grace Snow was going to be coming along, there was no way he wasn't going to completely embarrass himself in front of her; Patrick knew Grace not because of softball since really sports weren’t his thing but because she took violin lessons after school along-side him. She was chilled-out in a cool way, super kind and way more extrovertive than him, Patrick had developed a crush on her pretty quick. 

Working his way through the sea of high schoolers Patrick stopped in his tracks seeing said crush standing over by his car, a few students shoved him snapping and telling him to move or fuck off. When Patrick finally walked up to his car Grace’s face lit up

“Hey, Patrick, sorry for just standing here. I heard you were going to come with us to Remember? I don't have any gas money on me right now but I can pay you tomorrow if that’s cool, I was going to ride with Dustin but then he said it was just going to be us and honestly he’s a dick” 

“Uh-totally, sure I don’t mind being your ride. You’re going to have to tell me where to go though, I wasn’t told what I was agreeing to” he was not going to mention to his crush that he’d been spacing off when Dustin was talking

Grace looked relieved and hopped into the passenger side, Patrick tossed his backpack in the backseat and started the car up. Lucky for him Grace started talking about what exactly Dustin had roped him in to, the more she talked the more he started to regret agreeing; Remember was an antique shop that was on the outskirts of the city, Dustin had found out about it because of Kaylee being part of a paranormal group forum and she’d suggested her and Dustin get a little group and check it out. Grace had laughed and said that Kaylee was delusional but she was convinced that the antique shop was haunted or at least had some kind of paranormal thing related to it since the lot it was on was rumored to be haunted. 

“I’m just hoping I’ll find some cool old stuff to put in my new apartment, don’t tell anyone because it sounds so stupid but I actually like checking out goodwills and antique places” 

Patrick could kind of relate, sometimes he’d get lucky and find good old vinyls “that’s not stupid, you can get some pretty cool stuff at places like that. My brother got his girlfriend a dress she liked from a goodwill” 

Oh god, that was lame. 

Grace just hummed though smiling “That’s sweet, you got any other siblings?” 

“Um, a sister, Megan. They don’t live with us though, Kevin’s in college and Megan moved out with some friends, she’s also in college too though so…” Patrick felt his ears burn a little, was it possible to not ramble when you're around your crush? “Does Dustin know you’re with me?” 

“Who cares, what matters is that we all end up in the same place” Grace snorted, leaning against the window “I’m really going just because Kaylee didn’t want it to just be here and Joanna. Jo doesn’t believe in ghosts and always gives Kaylee shit for it, I don’t get why they’re friends. Plus I think it’s because Jo likes Dustin and that grosses Kaylee out” 

O….kay, what...was Patrick supposed to react to that? “Dustin seems to force himself into situations a lot. We’re not even friends, he just won’t leave me alone in science and I guess he thinks we’re friends or something” 

“Ha, sounds like him” 

The conversation changed from the trip to sort of whatever, Grace just talking about things that happened at school that Patrick had no clue about since he wasn't in the in-crowd and about softball with once again things Patrick didn't understand. To his embarrassment Grace had noticed his CD collection and asked if she could go through it, not wanting to look like a loser or worse someone that listened to shady stuff (how more dramatic could he have been) Patrick gave the a-okay. 

“You’re really into music” Grace chimed while staring at a scratched to hell Bowie CD “is that why you’re taking violin classes?” 

“That’s um, it’s more of Kevin wanting me to try it out. He plays Violin, he’s super great at it, I guess he just wanted to have me try it out too. If you give me any instrument I’ll figure out how to play it somehow, not always that great but I can at least make something happen” 

Grace nodded and looked through a few more “that’s pretty cool, is your whole family full of musicians?” 

“My dad is a folk singer, Kevin is actually my step-brother but it seems like music comes from my dad’s side. My dad’s the reason I really like music” shit speaking of he hadn’t told his mom he was going out after school, he’d have to do that as soon as they stopped at Remember.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this band before” Grace held up a CD case with a grainy photo “the cover looks pretty handmade” 

Patrick felt a loop-da-loop happen in his stomach “that is actually-I mean the cover is actually handmade. It was when I was like, maybe thirteen or fourteen? They’re a band called Arma Angelus, well they were a band I mean. Kevin used to sneak me into some of their shows, it was pretty cool. That's a photo he took of the singer, it’s shitty I know but it makes for an okay cover” 

Grace hummed in acknowledgment, scanning over the back of the CD before frowning and looking at him. 

“Were a band, they broke up?” 

“Um, yeah you could say that…” a cold ball was growing in Patrick’s gut as he finally started driving out of the city “I don’t know if you’d know about the incident, I think it happened maybe five days after the last show Kevin took me to. They played at a bar and the whole place went up in flames, the singer died and so did their guitarist” 

“Holy shit” Grace now looked at the CD case like it was a viper “that’s….yeah, I think that would break up my band too. Does anyone know what happened?” 

“Not really” Patrick felt a little guilty now that they were talking about it. 

He remembered waking up to both his mom and Kevin who’d come to visit staring at the T.V. horrified, little 13-year-old Patrick though had been kept in the dark until the ride to school where Kevin explained to him what happened; somehow the bar had caught on fire and the fire department hadn’t been able to get there in time due to roads being blocked off, people had already left the bar but unfortunately “that band with the screaming guy” still had 2 members at the bar packing stuff up when it had caught on fire. For the rest of the day, Patrick had been walking around his school feeling like a zombie, dazed and confused, enough so that his P.E. teacher-usually a prick-had sent him to the nurse's office concerned something he was having low-blood sugar or migraine in the making. 

“There!” Grace shouted suddenly almost making him jerk the wheel, she was leaning over the console pointing at a building that looked like an old saloon “that’s Remember-oh! There’s Dustin and Joanna’s cars” 

“Please sit down” Patrick felt his face turn red, he sounded like his mom “is it even open? This place looks derelict” 

“It’s open, there’s been photos online about it” Grace pulled her phone out tapping on the keys, probably telling someone they were here. 

When they pulled into the gravel lot Patrick had flash-backs to most horror movies of the unsuspecting kids walking in somewhere after needing gas or directions only for the hick family or insane man running it to lock them in a torture trap. 

Okay, so that was really dramatic. 

When they exited the car Patrick called his mom quickly to tell her where he was (totally not lying about being at some shady antique shop) while Grace had gone over to the others, it felt pretty awkward when he joined them as A) they were all glaringly taller than him for some reason and B) Dustin as soon as Patrick had walked up threw his arm around his shoulders in a pretty painful headlock. 

“And here’s the baby! I wasn’t sure if you’d run off on us or not Patrick” Dustin tightened his arm now to the point airflow was actually being cut off. 

“Get off the kid!” Kaylee who’d been leaning against Joanna smacked Dustin hard, the result was the older boy dropped Patrick “god, you didn’t say anything about harassing Sophomores” 

Dustin was rubbing the back of his head glaring daggers at her “Oh come off it, he’s not a girl he can take hits” 

“You were choking him” Grace had held her hand out and helped pull Patrick up “and he’s not a sophomore he’s a senior” 

“What? You look like a baby” Joanna who’d been on her phone snorted and gave Patrick a quick once over “never mind, so you were Grace’s ride? I can give you some gas money in return” 

“No it’s um, it’s cool” Patrick stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets, great what a nice impression he’d already made for the popular kids “so what’re we here for exactly?” 

“Ghosts!” Kaylee’s mode switched now as she clapped her hands together smiling “this place is haunted, I’m going to walk around and do some E-V-P’s and you guys can do whatever” 

Joanna frowned and looked up from her phone “Kay don’t you need permission to do that?” 

“It’s not like she’s stealing anything so who cares. Look while she’s doing that I came here a few weeks ago with my brother and I found this weird book but I didn't bother stealing it” Dustin was already walking over to the doors “so I need you guys to look for it too, it looks like some kind of witch book” 

“Witch book? You’re an idiot” Joanna rolled her eyes and held the door open for the others to file in “nothing like spending your Friday evening at some old dusty place that grandma’s get lamps from” 

Grace and Patrick shared a brief look at that, it looked like she was trying not to laugh and Patrick found himself biting his lip as well. Inside was the usual antique shop look; shelves of knick-knacks and books, lamps and hanging lights, tables and chairs, but that was apparently the first half of the store only judging by a sign hanging from the ceiling saying _House are_ a. Ahead Joanna and Dustin were talking with who Patrick assumed was the owner of the store, the guy looked pretty annoyed seeing him and Grace walk-in but didn’t say anything. Kaylee was nowhere to be seen so he assumed she’d probably gone somewhere else in the building, he turned to ask Grace something but found her gone. He blinked before looking around him again, yep she was gone, why did he think she’d stick around him? Stupid thought, Patrick awkwardly rubbed his arm before starting to walk towards the little aisle that the sign hungover so he wasn’t just standing around looking like both an idiot and probably suspicious. Stepping to the other half of the building was like walking into an entirely new store, Patrick stood stupidly in the aisle trying to make sense of everything he was seeing; it was organized like the front with shelves of toys and even more random knick-knacks, instruments, and their cases lined some walls and toys too big to be on the shelves lined the floor as well. 

There was more, of course, Patrick was pretty sure down the aisle across the room was just a backroom of random garbage like most antique stores but so far this place was starting to look more appealing rather than creepy. Of course, he went right to the instruments, forgetting about wondering where Grace was or looking for a “witch book” whatever that might look like, he was pretty sure he just found a 12-string guitar that yes he _knew_ he didn’t need it but the point of going to stores like this were to sometimes window shop right? A few strings were missing which weren’t surprising, the body of it wasn’t too badly damaged-yikes, actually, the side of it had a pretty nasty looking crack in it but he figured he could probably get it fixed and the neck was fine save for some little warpage. 

It was when he checked the price tag though that Patrick immediately moved on to a trumpet that caught his eye on the wall, a 12-string in that shape for 80 wasn’t really in his price range in the first place. The trumpet looked alright though, no rust where it was visible but the mouthpiece was missing so he’d have to buy one-oops, missed that major dent on the bell, Patrick carefully put it back where it was hanging and stepped back from the wall to look over inventory again. He had a feeling most of the cases were full but he wasn't sure what policy for opening them were and if he did happen to drop something and damage it further he didn’t have an allowance that would fix it. From the front he thought he heard his name called, Patrick only half-heartedly called “back here!” while checking out a violin Kevin might like when something hanging off the wall caught his eye. 

There was one of those metal jewelry hanger things, several necklaces were all tangled together but what caught his attention was what looked like a crystal maybe with wire wrapped around it and a thin silver chain attached. It was pretty as much as knick-knacks went, his mom definitely wouldn’t wear something like it, she’d probably think it was way too garish- 

Maybe he could buy it for Grace though. 

That thought brought a stupid smile to his face, it took a few moments of trial and error to not cause a miniature landfall of necklaces he managed to get the necklace off the hook and headed to the front again. The 4 others had disappeared now somewhere but the guy was still behind the counter looking unimpressed when Patrick appeared. 

“Find something?” 

“Um, yea” jeez this dude radiated annoyance, Patrick set the necklace on the counter and reached for his wallet “how much?” 

The guy didn’t answer at first, Patrick was a little unnerved at the frown on his face as he picked up the necklace and dangled it in front of him. Was it maybe something that wasn't for sale? An accidental thing left behind hung up without realizing it? 

“Where’d you find this?” 

“In the...the back by the instruments” okay now the guy was looking at the necklace like it was...disgusting or something, oh jeez did he pick up a J.O. crystal? “Is it bad or something?”

The guy’s eyes snapped to Patrick’s face before he grunted and set the crystal down “superstitious bullshit. Its five bucks” 

5 bucks? That crystal better have been genuine, handing over the bills Patrick wondered just what “superstitious bullshit” was. The guy gestured over to another sign Patrick hadn’t seen and said his friends were in there and “if you shitters break anything you’re paying double the price”, did this asshole walk out of a King novel? The sign above the entrance said _Books_ and when Patrick walked into the room he could see why, wall to wall were shelves of books, and the tables in the room looked like a librarians worst nightmare. Joanna, Dustin, and Grace were around the room at different shelves; Patrick flinched as Dustin and Joanna’s method seemed to be throw the books on the ground while Grace was kinder and would pull a book out a little to see the cover before pushing it back in the shelf. 

“Yo Stump, where’d you go?” Dustin looked back at him annoyed before returning to dropping books 

“Browsing” Patrick debated on it before sighing and walking over to the pile Joanna and Dustin had created, at least he could pile them on the table “what are you guys doing?” 

“Looking for the weird book Dustin said he saw” Joanna huffed and threw a book down unnecessarily hard “but we’re not going to fucking find it in all of this! Look just ebay it or something Dustin” 

Dustin snorted and turned to glare at her “I _can’t_ ebay it because I didn’t even see a name, I saw a symbol on it and that was it” 

“So helpful” Joanna huffed, Patrick was wondering if that crush she had was waning “I’m tired of looking around here, I’m going to find Kaylee. We’ll stick around for a little bit longer but then we’re going out to eat, you guys can stay here if you want” 

Patrick moved out of the way as she stomped past him, leaving was starting to sound like a great idea and honestly, he’d rather give Grace the necklace when it was just him and her and not her friends around to embarrass him if she rejected the gift. Dustin mumbled something and went back to looking, Patrick resumed piling the books back up when Grace sighed loudly getting both of their attention. 

“I’m with Jo, I’m tired, Dustin. I know you wanna find that book but this is way more than just four people work. I’m going to join them” Grace smiled at Patrick which confused the hell out of him but he followed after her once she left the room. 

“Um?” Patrick started but Grace was making a bee-line for the back, the guy was no longer at the register which gave him the creeps but Grace calling for him snapped him out of it “yeah, hang on!” 

Joanna was nowhere to be seen but Grace had a very smug look on her face, Patrick was about to ask why when she practically shoved something in his face; it was a small-ish black leather-bound book and it took Patrick a few seconds to realize this must’ve been what Dustin was looking for. 

“I found it as soon as we walked into the store, you’d think he would be more observant since he was so hellbent on finding it” 

Patrick frowned and looked at the cover again, something was etched into it but it looked more like...flowers really “so...why are you hiding it from him?” 

“Because he’s a fucking dick” Grace laughed and started walking towards the back “come on, let's get the other two. I wanna leave, hide the book by the way? I don’t think Dustin planned on buying it” 

That sounded like the asshole alright, Patrick however didn’t set the book down on the first shelf he walked by and followed after Grace. The back indeed was just random junk, leaning against what looked like a battered up boudoir was a rather defeated looking Kaylee and Joanna stood beside her talking in a quiet voice. 

“...be discouraged! We can try other places, I’m sure there’s plenty of ghosts in Chicago” 

Kaylee sighed and looked miserably down at the device in her hands “I mean….yeah….you’re right, I was just really hoping this place had something” 

“Hey, you two wanna leave? This place is dusty as hell and that guy is creeping me out honestly” Grace chimed as the two of them walked up “Dustin’s been a bitch since we got here too” 

“He’s always a bitch” Kaylee snapped but her face softened “yeah, I’m done here anyway. You guys wanna come eat with us? You have to pay for yourself” 

“I don't’ mind, I’ll pay for Patrick” Grace smiled at him again “is this okay payment for being my ride?” 

“Sure, that's cool” the mention of food had his stomach rumbling a little. 

“Great, let’s head out then-hey wait!” Joanna grabbed Patrick's wrist and held it up, it hurt like hell but she was staring wide-eyed at the book in his hand “you found it? Oh my god, it was real! I thought he was just fucking with us. This is perfect, we can leave now” 

Patrick now floundered around to says something as Joanna hurried past him but instead, he just stood there mouth open like a fish feeling stupid, he winced hearing Grace’s sigh and the light glare she gave him before following after Joanna. Kaylee gave him a sympathetic look as she walked by him too, finally Patrick snapped out of his stupid-feeling daze and hurried after them. The 4 of them were in the instrument room and as soon as Patrick was spotted Dustin scooped him up into a way too tight hug before unceremoniously letting him fall to his feet and stumble. 

“You found my book! That’s great, here give it to me” Dustin snatched dit out of his hand and shoved it in his jacket, Patrick felt worse seeing Grace again give him a disappointed look “c’mon I’m hungry and the girls promised food” 

The 5 of them made their way to the front, Patrick’s stomach rolling at the sudden cold feeling the whole building had, the guy was back behind the register and was watching them with an almost murderous look. It was made worse when as they were almost out Dustin stopped in his tracks making Patrick crash into him but this was ignored in favor of Dustin fucking _waving_ to the guy like they were old chums. Patrick despite being small had strength and used this to shove Dustin hard out the door, as it shut behind him he swore he heard something hit the glass but he didn’t want to stick around and see. 

Ignoring the older boy’s bitching he walked to his car seeing Grace already sitting inside but in the back was Kaylee, was he just a taxi now? He didn’t question it as he got into the car, both girls just continued talking about whatever as he started it up only to immediately go in reverse as the antique store owner burst out of his store spitting curses and charging at the cars. Grace and Kaylee screeched shouting at Patrick to book it, he didn’t need to be told twice and was soon driving back towards the city, Dustin’s car sped past him, and for a second he could see the terrified faces of both him and Joanna. 

“How the fuck did he know we stole that book?” Kaylee looked terrified still in the rear-view mirror 

“Dustin did say he went there before, maybe the guy just knew form Dustin’s little dickwad move that he’d run off with something” Grace sighed and ran a hand through her hair “he’d better hope the cops don’t get called on him, I’m not testifying in his defense” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all is not well in the dwelling of Waffleville

Somehow sitting in the far corner of a McDonalds where the light kept flickering occasionally with a stolen book from an antique store that supposedly had something to do with witchcraft felt very fitting to Patrick. He poked the greasy fries in front of him with another fry, face squished against his palm while he only vaguely heard Dustin talking about the book and something about Kaylee claiming she knew a witch in town. Grace sat across from him, the drive to McDonald’s had been awkward since she seemed to remember she was disappointed in him for not hiding the book and mostly talked to Kaylee for most of the trip; great, giving her the necklace was probably going to look like a douchebag move now. 

“This is perfect!” Kaylee suddenly shouted making Patrick jump and accidentally elbow Joanna, luckily she didn’t seem to care and just looked at Kaylee confused “this page-look!” 

“Hey!” Dustin snapped as she snatched the book from him and held it open towards Patrick and Joanna. 

Patrick wasn’t sure what most of the symbols meant but the drawing was disturbing in and of itself; there was what looked like some kind of summoning circle in the top corner, the large drawing in the middle of the page however was...well Patrick could really only describe it best as a zombie-like figure. 

“That’s so gross” Joanna mumbled, she held her phone up though, and snapped a pic “what the hell is it?” 

Grace leaned over the table a little to get a better look and frowned “um...it looks like some kind of summoning thing? Kay I don’t think that’s something you should mess with” 

Kaylee scowled and for some reason directed her attention to Patrick “does it look dangerous to you?” 

“Um” he swallowed dryly, out of the corner of his eye Grace was giving him a withering stare “I mean...I’m not really superstitious but if this book is legit I think we should look for a different page if you want to talk to the dead or something” 

Kaylee frowned and pulled the book back to herself, flipping it around and scanning the page “people could claim that I’m lying about ghosts, even if we found a spell to talk to the dead a video of an actual zombie would be better” 

“Yeah as it fucking kills us” Joanna had put her phone away, Patrick guessed that was her way of being invested in the conversation “Kaylee Patrick’s right, if you want to get paranormal evidence then let’s just use a board or talk to a mirror or something” 

Kaylee scowled and looked at Grace, she didn’t get any support from her clearly so with a huff she handed the book back to Dustin. The older boy just huffed and opened it back up again, leafing through pages once more while the conversation went to a more normal topic, Patrick now going back to just poking his meal while deep in thought. 

“What the hell?” Dustin jerked away from the table causing it to shake and a few drinks to spill, now everyone was standing and causing a commotion but the older boy didn’t seem to notice as he stared at what landed on the floor “what the _fuck_ is that?” 

“You dickhead!” Kaylee snapped as Joanna dapped napkins on her shirt trying to help clean the soda pop “what the fuck Dustin-is that a bag of _hair?”_

Patrick had moved out of the booth with Joanna to grab some napkins from a dispenser when Kaylee had asked that, on the floor lay a little plastic bag that somehow hadn’t been touched by the spillage, walking over and kneeling carefully Patrick picked it up despite Kaylee and Joanna’s cries of disgust. The bag itself looked faded as hell, scratches making the plastic look opaque, from what he could see though it definitely looked like there was a perfectly cut clump of hair inside. 

“Hey!” the group all jumped and looked towards the front where a very angry looking worker was standing with two others behind her, she was probably the manager “what the fuck do you kids think you’re doing?” 

Patrick could already see Dustin about to talk without needing to look at him “we’re so sorry miss, if you have a mop or something I can clean the mess up” 

The lady looked at Patrick for a few seconds before huffing “forget it, take your food and leave” 

“You can’t kick us out!” Kaylee shouted

Thankfully Joanna and Grace seemed to agree with Patrick’s unspoken feelings and picked up what nugget boxes weren’t destroyed by the spilled soda and made a bee-line for the doors. Once outside however the group minus Patrick went to sit at the outside tables, the younger boy stood at the doors for a few moments looking back inside to see a worker already mopping up the mess before finally walking over to the others. 

“Is that actually hair?” Joanna asked once he sat down, he held it out and she recoiled in disgust “oh my god! Why was that in the book? That’s so fucking gross!” 

Dustin wasn’t grossed out at all, he was grinning in fact “This just proves that this is a real witch book!” 

“How?” Kaylee and Joanna asked.

“I’m pretty sure it’s called sympathetic magic” Grace frowned and held her hand out, hesitantly Patrick placed the bag in her hand “you have a piece of someone and you have power over them I think...but if someone wanted to get rid of that book and if this is a real witch book then putting a piece of themselves into a book just sounds like they’re trying to get someone to use it” she set the bag down eyeing it warily.

“A zombie!” Kaylee’s repulsion was replaced with excitement “guys this is perfect! If we have this then we can control the zombie and make it that they can’t bite us” 

  
“Oh my god!” Joanna stood up from the bench and glared around the table “do you guys hear yourselves? I just wasted my whole Friday evening because I thought we were going to actually do something worth doing but so far I’ve just had to listen to your guys’ stupid bullshit obsession with ghosts or whatever and now _you_ (she accentuated this by actually jabbing a finger at Kaylee’s temple) are actually talking about making a zombie come to life!” 

“Nobody fucking invited you!” Kaylee snapped back, slapping the other girl’s hand away “and if you have such a problem with it then fucking leave, you have a car after all!” 

“You fucking know what, yeah I will!” Joanna huffed again but didn’t walk away right away, instead, she pulled her wallet out and shoved a few bills at Patrick “here’s gas money, I’m not taking Kaylee home and she lives pretty far out” 

“Wha-hey!” Patrick managed to grab them all as Joanna stomped away, great so he was a fucking taxi. 

“Jo! Don’t you fucking treat him like that!” Grace shouted after her, standing up before letting out a frustrated sigh and sitting back down “Forget her, still, I’m not on board for summoning a zombie Kaylee. Seriously, let’s just do it the old fashioned way, if you want to do a video let’s make sure we’re all in the frame so no one will think we’re faking it” 

Kaylee frowned looking doubtful but just nodded “yeah..yeah okay, that works. We just need to find a place to go” 

“Wait, wait, we’re ghost hunting now?” Dustin looked between the girls and then at Patrick before back at them “I didn't agree to ghost hunting” 

“And we didn’t agree to steal books from old stores but here we are” Grace snapped, Dustin flinched but was ignored as she looked at Patrick smiling weakly “you wanna come with?” 

“Tonight?” Patrick's voice cracked a little, Kaylee gave him a doubtful look making him feel a twinge of ‘fuck you’ “yeah of course, I’m down” 

“Great, we just need to stop at Kaylee’s place then” Grace turned and glared at Dustin “well?” 

The older boy huffed rolling his eyes “yeah sure, I guess I’ll go…” something seemed to pop into his head however as he started grinning “actually yeah, you know what? This is a good idea. We’ve got a witch book, we’ll find something for real real, get on T.V.” 

“Of course you’d go with being famous” Kaylee mumbled rolling her eyes as she stood up “okay well, let’s get going then ‘cause the sun is going down and we need to think of a place” 

“Text me when you find a place” Dustin didn’t bother taking his food with him as he headed over to his car. 

“Fucking asshole” Grace mumbled, she opened his nugget box making a face “ugh, it's not even food at this point”

Back in the car, the girls tried brainstorming places to go, a few cemeteries were brought up and some abandoned places that Patrick was pretty sure they'd get murdered in before they reached Kaylee’s house which was indeed pretty far from where they’d been; she seemed to only be gone for a second before she was plopping a large black gym-bag in the seat next to her. 

“Okay I’ve got all my gear and my brother let me borrow some flashlights...we still don’t have a location yet” she sighed and flopped back against the seat dramatically “I mean we could look up supposed haunted hot spots…” 

“What about that burned down bar?” 

Patrick’s stomach dropped and he looked at Grace, he wasn’t sure what his face looked like but she shrank a little in her seat. 

Kaylee however seemed excited as she was now between the seats staring at Grace “what bar? What bar?” 

“Um…” Grace glanced at Patrick. 

Bad choice since now Kaylee was practically right in his face “what bar? What happened, why did it burn?” 

Patrick’s cheeks burned as he pressed back against the door “no one knows why it just...it went up in flames” 

“ _What_ bar though” Kaylee squeaked as Grace grabbed her shoulder and shoved her into the backseat again “ow!” 

“Don't be in his fucking face jeez” 

Patrick silently thanked her as he sat up straighter “I don't’ remember the name anymore, it happened when I was thirteen. I still know the way….” 

It was bad to mess with the dead right? Wasn’t there supposed to be karma if you did that, Patrick wasn’t sure but he had a feeling Grace had mentioned the bar incident just because Kaylee had looked so bummed out…

“I know where the singer is buried, we could go there” 

He'd never felt foreboding before but as soon as he said that it felt like a blanket of that exact feeling fell over him.

*

The sun had set by the time they’d arrived at Rose Hill cemetery, Dustin had been surprised they’d found a place and to Patrick’s surprise, Joanna had come along after all accompanied by her boyfriend. While Kaylee was handing out flashlights and explaining what was going on and the purpose of some equipment Patrick was very uncomfortable at how Dustin and Josh kept sizing each other up, hadn’t Grace mentioned that Joanna liked Dustin? Patrick doubted there’d be much ghost hunting tonight and more awkward tension than anything else, maybe if he was lucky he could give Grace the necklace while everyone else was walking around ghost hunting. 

“Alright, so where’s the tombstone?” Kaylee asked once she had a few things attached to a belt, she looked so happy Patrick was hoping that she at least maybe caught a shadow or something tonight.

“It’s a mausoleum actually” Patrick clicked his flashlight a few times before leaving it on, slowly he started walking away from the safety of the cars “I don’t think we can get _in_ the mausoleum itself but I figured we could just hang around it? I’ve heard people say that there are those...light things that are around the structure” 

“Orbs?” Kaylee grabbed his shoulder and had the brightest smile he’d ever seen before “if it’s this far away from the roads that means they’re genuine! This is going to be amazing!” 

“Um cool?” Patrick felt his face burn a little as Kaylee was now holding his hand, did this girl realize she was doing that or…? “The singer’s name is Pete Wentz-” 

“Pete Wentz?” Josh seemed to appear right next to Patrick, jeez the dude was tall “like Arma Angelus Pete Wentz? Jeez Kaylee that’s pretty fucked we’re bothering him” 

Kaylee huffed and to Patrick’s embarrassment she looped their arms together now “and it wouldn’t be any more fucked to bother a random nobody?” 

Josh huffed and rolled his eyes but turned his attention to Patrick “so you liked them?” 

“My brother thought they were cool, that’s how I know about them” Patrick was just trapped in the most uncomfortable situation tonight wasn't he? “Pete-Peter I mean, he was recovered but I think they he guitarists body was so damaged the family had him cremated” 

Kaylee squealed and Patrick was starting to think she was a little too happy about death “a cremated body is more likely to have a soul still tied to it! Oh I’m so glad you suggested this place” 

“Uh” Patrick wriggled his arm away and backed up, unfortunately, Grace walked into him and that was almost topped over “fuck-sorry-shit!” 

“Hey it's okay!” she caught his arm and helped steady him as the group walked past the two of them, she smiled kindly and laughed a little “she’s a little too excited about this whole ghost thing” 

  
“Is she always like this?” Patrick glanced ahead, the group seemed to have forgotten he was the one who knew where the mausoleum was “I mean, I get having passions but it seems like she’s forgetting these are dead people” 

“Yeah her passion scares me a little. Hey, I wanted to say thanks by the way” Grace smiled and elbowed him gently “she was really bummed, I know this is awkward and you might feel bad about telling her where a dead dude’s mausoleum is but seriously thanks for trying to cheer her up” 

“Of course. I just hope Dustin doesn’t try and break-in, grave robbing is not something I want to add in my life” Patrick smiled at Grace laughing, maybe he could give her the necklace now? “Hey so, while we were in the store-” 

“Oh right! I ended up finding some stuff for my apartment, would you mind helping me out tomorrow and bringing stuff in?” 

Did...did Grace know what Patrick was trying to do? He felt his face burn at that thought and awkwardly cleared his throat.

“Sure, I don’t have any classes tomorrow and my mom’s been getting ready to leave town for a bit” he felt around in his jacket pocket, the necklace was there so now was a better time as any to just pull it out “anyway I found-” 

“Hey, where the hell are we even going?” Kaylee walked up to the two and grabbed Patrick’s arm hauling him along with her “you’re supposed to be leading” 

_Son of a fucking-_

“It’s there” he pointed, apparently they’d walked longer than he’d thought or somehow they’d parked closer to the spot “his mausoleums the only one with that angel at the door” 

Said mausoleum in question was hard to miss but usually was unless you were looking for it, your basic grey stone structure what was odd was at the door itself there was an angel that was half leaning out of the door almost like the lady at the front of a pirate ship; the group all stopped and stared for a few moments in unnerving silence, all the excitement seemed to have disappeared as soon as the cold stone eyes of the angel found them. Patrick had only come here once before, after the families of Pete and the guitarist had had their personal funeral the band had surprisingly had several fans that wanted to pay tribute to them, even though their mom had been a little upset about it Kevin had taken Patrick with him to the funeral. 

“So what do we do?” Joanna broke the silence, she was clinging to Josh’s arm looking afraid understandably

“Don’t we just start asking things, that’s what they do on shows” Dustin was clearly trying to put up a front but even he was looking around nervously “what kind of dude’s parents can afford a mausoleum like this anyway and not have their son be some famous band dude?” 

“They were famous locally” Patrick snapped, all of them looking at him with comically wide eyes reminding him of owls “Pete’s band was great, don’t fucking talk shit about him and especially not in front of his own dead body” 

Dustin’s mouth was open like a fish, closing it and opening a few more times before clearing his throat awkwardly, Kaylee coughed and knelt down setting candles in a clump to give some good light; once lit the atmosphere of the cemetery seemed to darken, the angel’s face cast in shadows as the flames flickered around dancing across his face, Kaylee motioned for everyone to sit down and they did so albeit in a sort of clumped circle. She unclipped a device from her belt and set it in front of her after switching it on, another thing Patrick recognized as the EVP recorder. 

“Okay, I’m going to start asking questions. Since there’s so many of us we’ll go in the circle starting to my left, if you don’t have a question just say pass, or if you’d rather not you can just tap the person on the shoulder” Kaylee didn’t get any protest, with that she nodded and switched on the device “Pete Wentz, are you there?” 

Silence, the whole group was tense as static popped through the EVP but nothing was coming through. Kaylee sighed and seemed to ignore her rule, Patrick wondered if she was just trying to get the ball rolling. 

“Pete Wentz, if you’re here or can here us, blow one of the candles out” 

“This is fucking stupid” Josh snapped, he moved to his knees ignoring Joanna’s protest at what he said, “look I’m going to-”

Then all the candles went out. 

Everyone was frozen, Patrick himself felt his throat close up since there was no wind at all and no one was close enough to breathe on the candles; any rational explanation he might have thought of went out the window as after a minute the candles suddenly lit up again. Now he could see everyone’s face clearer and they all had the same look of shock and fear, even Kaylee’s determination seemed to have withered. To her left was Joanna, the girl’s face looked paler somehow but she cleared her throat and sat up a little straighter. 

“uh...Pe...Pete Wentz…” she glanced around nervously as if someone else could’ve given her a question to ask, Patrick thought she should’ve just touched Josh’s shoulder to pass it on but seemed to come up with something at least “that thing in my friend’s hand can help you….talk to us I think...um, is this your mausoleum?” 

Dustin and Josh both scoffed but were quickly silenced as the EVP seemed to explode in sound, all gibberish at first until one word came through clear. 

_“Angel”_

Joanna pressed herself into Josh’s sighed mumbling something but her boyfriend’s fear seemed to now turn into anger. 

“Oh fuck this” he snapped and stood up, shoving Joanna off him “I don’t know what kind of prank you’re playing but this is stupid. Jo let’s go” 

“Will you shut up? You’re being disrespectful” Kaylee glared up at him “why did you even come here if you just thought this was going to be a prank anyway? You and Joanna didn’t have to come” 

“Oh you’re one to fucking talk you ghost fucker” Josh snapped.

“Josh!” Joanna moved to stand in front of him “don’t talk to her like that, she’s my best friend! If you’re gonna be like this you can just leave!” 

Josh laughed harshly “right, leave a girl alone when there's two boys around” he gestured over at Patrick in a jerky hand option “I’m pretty sure he’s fucking gay anyway” 

Patrick felt his face heat up at that and apparently this had somehow offended Dustin, the next thing anyone knew he was up and threw himself at the taller boy, everyone shouting as Dustin and Josh began beating on each other. Joanna was shouting at Dustin to get off him and for Josh to knock it off, Kaylee had blown out the candles to keep anyone from getting burned and really Grace was the only one doing something; being in softball must’ve given her some kind of arm strength because she hauled Dustin off Josh like he weighs nothing and pulled up Josh only to punch him in the face. The taller boy cried out in pain and fell down to the grass clutching at his face, Patrick had turned his flashlight on and felt sick seeing there was blood on Grace’s hand. 

“Get the fuck out of here! We came here to talk to do a paranormal investigation, you’re the fucking perv here!” she shouted. 

Josh managed to get up on wobbly legs, whether he had something left to say or not no one would know since all he did was give one last glare before running from the group taking his flashlight with him. Joanna had wilted next to Kaylee looking miserable, Kaylee had her arm around her and had since shut off the EVP recorder, Grace had sat back down and had removed her jacket to clean her hand off while Dustin had walked a few feet away leaning against the tree. 

“Well, that was a shit show” Kaylee mumbled, beside her Joanna sniffled a little “do you guys just wanna pack up?” 

“No” Joanna sat up and scooted a little away wiping her eyes “come on, we came here to ghost hunt. I think this is still bullshit but if you believe in ghosts then I just hope we didn’t piss the ghost of Pete off” 

“Right…” Kaylee set the candles back up again, pausing to look over where Dustin still was before lighting them again and switching the EVP on “Pe-” 

The static started screaming making everyone jump or shout, through the box came a very clear word in what sounded like an enraged voice: 

_“Phobic….homo….phobic….”_

“What?” Kaylee glanced around at the 3 “did...did the voice just say ‘homophobic’?” 

“Maybe it’s Pete, Josh did call Patrick gay after all” Grace guessed, she scooted over to Kaylee and took the EVP from her “are you angry at what Josh said?” 

Static “ _mad”_

Kaylee's eyes were wide as she snatched the EVP back “are you still Pete Wentz? Can you touch one of our shoulders if it is?” 

“Kaylee!” Joanna squeaked, looking around her as if she could see someone “dude isn’t that a big no-no or something in the ghost world?” 

While the two girls bickered Patrick suddenly felt extremely cold, he stared at the candles wondering if they would flicker again when he felt a light pressure on his shoulder; his whole body tensed up with the urge to scream as the spot right where his shoulder met his shoulder blade, it felt like ice had been placed right on his skin. 

“Patrick?” Grace leaned a little to look him in the face “what’s up?” 

“Are you being touched?” Kaylee asked in a hushed voice 

“I’m-” 

_Say no_ Patrick jerked and stared to his right where no one was, something had whispered in his ear he knew it for a fact 

“Patrick?” all 3 girls asked 

“I thought...I thought I heard something” Patrick swallowed and looked around again, Dustin had moved now to sit “should...should I go?” 

“Hey yeah! You know about his band, maybe that makes it easier for him to talk to you” Kaylee shoved the EVP into his hands almost causing him to drop it “go on, go on” 

Patrick stared at the device in his hands, the static occasionally had pops but so far nothing was coming through “um...Pete...Wentz, I’m Patrick. Uh...what’s up?” 

His face burned as the girls all burst into giggles albeit sounding hysterical, Patrick tried to smile only for the EVP to start popping again: 

“ _Patrick”_ all laughter stopped and eyes widened “ _Stump”_

Patrick’s mouth dried up and it felt like he’d swallowed ash, the girls were now staring at him as if he’d grown horns from his head, the device in his hand had gone quiet again but a small pop had Patrick dropping it and scrambling back in the grass. The EVP started crackling again, popping and radio-talk shows started coming through but nothing was clear, nobody made any motions to get it until Dustin suddenly walked up making everyone scream since no one had heard his footsteps; he glared at everyone then knelt and picked up the EVP shutting it off. 

“What in the fuck is everyone screaming about?” 

“Pete knows Patrick!” Kaylee jabbed her finger in his direction as if Dustin didn’t see him “Pete-he just said Patrick’s name! How does he know you?” 

“I-I don’t know! I never talked to him!” Patrick racked his brain trying to remember if he ever had, Kevin had made sure he and Patrick were at the front of the crowds and usually used himself to make sure Patrick somehow didn’t get thrown to the ground but he couldn’t remember ever talking to Pete “maybe it’s not even Pete, maybe it’s...another ghost” 

“That knows your name?” Joanna asked doubtfully, she detached herself from Kaylee’s side to stand up, brushing off grass and whatever was clinging to her jeans “okay so this has been a freaky night, I am ready to pack up because this...ghost or whatever is going on knows Patrick somehow and I think I’m done with playing with the dead” 

“But we just got serious contact!” Kaylee stood up quickly and gave Joanna a betrayed look “You told me if we got something serious then you’d stay” 

“I only said that to humor you!” Joanna turned towards her sharply and scowled “this is freaking me out and if those T.V. shows are anything to go by we shouldn’t be talking to ghosts or one of us is going to end up cursed or something!” 

“Cursed…” Dustin’s mumble broke the argument and all eyes were on him, in his hands he was holding the witch book and to Patrick’s horror he slowly looked up grinning at the group “no we won’t, there’s got to be some protective stuff in this book” 

“ _No_ were are _not!”_ Grace snapped.

She tried snatching the book from him, Dustin shoved her away almost causing her to trip onto the candles but Patrick caught her and pulled her over to him (although this almost knocked him over).

“I take back all my doubt okay? That book is dangerous, none of us are witches and we shouldn’t be playing with that stuff. We’re not summoning a fucking zombie!” 

Now it was 2 against 2 as Kaylee scooted a little closer to Dustin “we’re not gonna summon just some random zombie, we’re gonna summon _Pete_ , clearly he knows Patrick somehow! You said you were a fan of his or something right? No one would want to hurt a fan!” 

“That logic is so fucked” Patrick snapped, seriously was she saying that he would somehow guarantee that an undead creature wasn’t going to kill them? “You can’t even get to his body, the mausoleum is shut” 

“Well then maybe we can summon his ghost!” Kaylee grabbed the book from Dustin’s hands and flipped to a page apparently bookmarked “look, the zombie page says stuff about summoning but maybe we can tweak it” 

“ _Tweak_ it? This isn’t a fucking pie recipe, Kaylee!” Grace sounded exasperated.

While the two bickered and Joanna helpless tried stopping them Patrick felt a gold pressure on his shoulder, his breath caught in his throat as it suddenly felt like a fog fell over him. 

_Don't let them_ Patrick jerked his head to the left, a few trees were moving around with a breeze Patrick hadn’t felt before _Stop them_

“Give me the book” Patrick had no idea where the steeliness in his voice came from but the girls stopped bickering and stared at him “we’re playing with stuff we shouldn’t be doing okay? This is...this is like black magic. The hair, this book, the fact it was in an antique store? We shouldn’t be doing any of this, we need to either get rid of this book or give it back” 

The girls had a look he couldn’t quite place but Dustin was laughing. 

“When did you grow a pair?” the older boy snatched the book back from Kaylee, she protested but he ignored this walking up to the angel “‘ _like black magic_ ’ you need to grow up Stumpy, I’ve been fucking with you guys this whole time. No way this is real, all of this is just bullshit and whatever you thought you heard on that radio thing isn’t real” 

“What?” Kaylee stared at him, Patrick looked at Joanna and Grace to see their face reflecting his discomfort “you were like, hellbent on finding that stupid book” 

“Yeah because its a bunch of bullshit but I knew you were super into ghosts and all this dumb stuff” Dustin sneered, opening the book back up to the zombie page and pulled something from his pocket “and I’m going to prove it too to show that you just wasted your life away on something stupid” 

“Fuck you!” Kaylee tried snatching the book back but Dustin shoved her hard, causing her to fall to the ground hard

“You dickwad!” Joanna shouted, getting down to help Kaylee sit up “what is your fucking problem?” 

“You two fucking are!” Dustin snapped, whatever he’d pulled out of his pocket he ripped open and it scattered to the grass “Nothing is going to fucking happen at all” 

“Oh fuck this!” Joanna lunged at him, unlike Kaylee she managed to get the book and knock him off balance causing him to fall “fuck you, you insensitive prick! First, you almost fucking shove her into candles and now you’re-just go fucking drop dead!” 

Something about that sentence made Patrick’s gut drop “guys knock it off! I’m leaving, whoever wants a ride home, come follow me” 

As Patrick turned around though he heard it again, faint but somehow right in his ear 

_You’re too late, it’s too late_

It was then there was a horrible smell of something burning, Patrick turned on heel quickly thinking the candles had touched some grass only to see what Dustin had dropped at Pete’s mausoleum burning; the _hair_ , the hair that had been in the bag-his gut rolled as he remembered Grace hadn’t given it back or even pocketed, she’d just put it on the table. All 3 girls were backing away shouting in fear, even Dustin was backing away and whatever asshole bravado he had was replaced with terror on his face, Patrick was trying to figure out where the circle was that was supposed to be used when he saw the distant glow coming from the tree Dustin had been sitting at; the bastard had been carving it into a tree the whole time-Patrick ran over to it while the girls were now screaming and quickly he pulled his keys out, maybe it would damage the house key but he had to stop whatever the hell was going on. 

It was eerie in a surreal fucked up way, to say the least, the key tore at the bark easy and the green glow coming from the circle went out like a broken bulb, Patrick didn’t have time to be relieved as he felt a horrible pain along his back; a scream ripped from him sounding like bloody murder and he ran towards the others, his scream snapped everyone out of their frozen stupor and the group began to run. To no surprise Patrick was shoved down by Dustin along with Joanna as they raced from the mausoleum, while Kaylee ran back to get Joanna Patrick felt something grab his ankle, another panic filled scream was torn from him as pain raced up his leg at the feeling of something sharp tearing into his calf. The two girls didn't even bother to help him up, both running and the shape of the 4 of them began to get smaller as Patrick was being dragged backward. 

Desperately he clawed at the ground trying to get some kind of ground, behind he heard the sound of something heavy and large being moved and suddenly he was benign dragged up stone steps slamming into his chin each time no doubt scraping some skin off. Patrick finally managed to get some holding on the ledge of the doorway, his screams echoing throughout the mausoleum as whatever it was holding him started digging the sharp thing deeper into his leg, he was going to fucking die in a mausoleum all because he agreed to play witchcraft with some shitty seniors- he heard a clink and looked beneath him to see the necklace had fallen out of his pocket, stupidity Patrick panicked at this until there was a new scream and whatever had him let go causing him to slam into the ground and his shins were definitely going to be bruised it he got out of there alive. 

“Patrick!” he looked up to see Grace running towards him with a lamp in one hand and what looked like a bat in the other, probably Dustin’s. 

Somehow Patrick managed to scramble out of the mausoleum despite his leg feeling like it was torn to pieces, the next thing he knew he was leaning into Grace as the two of them were running (well more like Grace was dragging him along) towards the cars. Dustin’s car was gone, Joanna and Kaylee were standing at Patrick’s car both looking terrified and even more so when they saw Patrick’s leg; Grace didn’t let Patrick see, instead, she helped put him in the passenger seat taking the keys from his pocket and told Kaylee to stay in the back. Around him everything started to sound like it was underwater, Kaylee was beside him holding his hand saying something and the look on her face was apologetic but it was impossible to even hear her, in the front Joanna was wailing something and Grace was clearly trying to stay calm but the tears in her eyes said otherwise. While everything was swimming around the pain in Patrick’s leg was starting to go numb, his eye started to flutter closed as something again whispered in his ear. 

_Go to sleep, I’ll find you, just go to sleep._


	3. Chapter 3

“Patrick! You’re going to be late, get up!” 

He groaned and rolled over, pressing his face into the pillow grumbling, wasn’t it Saturday? His mom might’ve just read the calendar wrong…

“Patrick Stump, I’m not writing you a note for being absent!” 

“ _Okay,_ mom!” Patrick called back, still, it took a few more seconds for him to prop himself up on his elbows to reach over to his nightstand for his glasses “if it’s actually Saturday I’m going to scream…” 

The light streaming in his room was a gloomy kind, great there was probably a rainstorm on the way; Patrick peeked outside the curtains frowning seeing the neighborhood looked pretty...dead. Even the neighbor’s car was still in their driveway, his mom _had_ to have gotten the day wrong. 

“Mom! No one else is awake, why did...you…” Patrick trailed off as he slowly looked down to his feet. 

The floorboards were cold sometimes in the morning but they weren’t icy, his floorboards were the usual kind of oak with stains, not dark grey stone with what looked like water stains. A ball of something uneasy and oily started in his stomach, Patrick looked up and around his room feeling worse; his bed was there still along with the band posters on his wall and his nightstand, where the window had been though was now was a solid concrete wall and as he turned to his door his whole body felt like it had been encased in ice to see that the door has an iron inner door and on the other side a solid stone one. His breath started to hitch as he jerkily moved towards the bars, with shaking hands he grabbed them and stupidly started shaking them as if they would move, behind him the rest of his room faded away turning into a solid wall of stone. 

“What the hell, what the hell, _what the hell!_ ” Patrick shrieked, shoving away from the bars only to trip on something cold and fall to the ground hard “fuck! What-” 

His words caught in his throat as he stared at what looked like a handle to a door in the floor, the uneasy oily ball had grown into something creeping into his throat as he slowly looked around him recognizing the outline of a hatch that you’d place a coffin in inside a mausoleum. That was what his room now was Patrick realized, he was inside a mausoleum somehow and if this terror wasn’t enough to the nightmare cake something slammed into the door causing the iron bars to ring and Patrick to scream. He scrambled up and pressed his back against the far wall, eyes wide as he saw the iron door starting to move with every bang of whatever was trying to break in; Patrick’s scream echoed through the mausoleum as the stone door crumbled, it was drowned out by the sound of snarling as arms shot through the bars clawing at the air. 

“ _What the fuck!_ ” Patrick screamed, there was no room left but he kept pressing back into the wall as if he could melt into it “get the fuck away, getaway!” 

The snarls seemed to get louder and a putrid smell filled the room, Patrick gagged as it burned his nose causing him to double over and cover his face as his eyes began to water. The arms were different shades of nasty grays and greens, bits of flesh were dangling off them and to his horror, something that looked like fluid was dripping to the floor, slowly Patrick began to sink to the ground as tears ran down his face; more arms seemed to be trying to break through the door causing the iron to creak and groan at the stress but the door was stood steady, Patrick meanwhile had started pinching skin and digging nails into his arms and legs in an attempt to wake up from this nightmare or whatever was happening to him. Angry red crescents decorated his arms but he was still in the mausoleum with a hoard of...of _zombies_ or something trying to break in and most likely kill him, did he have to smash his head into the wall just to wake up? 

The iron door screeched and Patrick screamed as part of it bent inwards sharply, a sea of gnashing teeth and glowing eyes tried slipping through the opening. The smell worsened choking him and the tears blurred his vision, Patrick shut his eyes tightly willing himself to wake up or for something to happen to make those creatures go away; the sudden silence had his eyes snapping open, it felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over him as he stared into a pair of glowing eyes glaring at him through the door. The figure didn’t have a solid form, it looked like some kind of wispy shadow appearing almost harmless but the sense of pure dread Patrick was feeling told him otherwise like it wanted to kill him. The thing reached up towards the door but seemed to flinch, the glare turning to the iron bars before looking back at Patrick as if he was the one that wasn’t letting it pass through the door. 

The wall behind Patrick disappeared and something else was there, something that smelled as awful as the creatures that had been trying to get in was pressed against his back and arms from behind wrapped around him pulling him closer to whatever he was leaning back against; on either side of him he saw burned, torn, and ripped up jeans that through some ripped parts he saw rotting skin. The shadow figure let out an enraged scream that sounded like multiple voices layered over each other, it slammed into the door bending it further allowing the thing to start climbing in but was unable to move further by some unseen force, the arms tightened more around Patrick and an animalistic growl sounded from behind. 

The door flew forward slamming into the wall with a hard crash, the shadow form rushing forward with inhuman speed reaching towards his face-

_Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep!_

Patrick jerked up gasping and flailing around, above him painfully bright lights glared down and from out of his vision hands grabbed his arms only causing him to start screaming. He heard muffled voices, the hands on his arms pushing them down to his sides before a face came into view talking to him in an almost non-existent voice. It took Patrick’s heart a few seconds to stop running a race track for him to realize he was in a hospital room, his hearing gradually returned to normal as the nurses that had grabbed his arms let go with a sigh and moved away, the doctor who’d been leaning over him grabbed a chair and slid it over so he wouldn’t have to be close to Patrick’s face. 

“Are you with us?” he asked, Patrick could only nod “good to hear, I’m Dr. Sherwood, Patrick. You’re at the hospital right now, do you remember what happened?” 

_A fucking creature from hell grabbed me and tried to drag me into a mausoleum_ “I think...I was attacked?” he croaked out, he wasn’t sure if it was convincing or not but Dr. Sherwood nodded again “Um...I was out with some kids from school and...I think we went to the cemetery”

“That’s what your friends that dropped you off said. I’ll relay what they said and you tell me if there’s any inaccuracies” Patrick flinched at the stern tone, Dr. Sherwood picked up a clipboard and flipped a few pages “you went to a cemetery because one of your friends wanted to ghost hunt, there was a noise that scared you all off and when trying to run away you were dragged away by a large dog”

Was that what Grace had seen when she came to rescue him? “That’s all right, I didn’t see what grabbed me but it sounded like a dog now that I think about it” 

Dr. Sherwood nodded and gestured to Patrick’s leg, somehow there was only a little bit of gauze wrapped around it “it was a nasty bite-wound but nothing fatal luckily. Your calf isn’t torn and no major veins were bitten, as clean a bite as any dog attacks come. Your mother was called earlier, about two hours ago. She’ll be coming in to take you home, would you like to stay in here or sit in the waiting room?” 

“Um...waiting room please” just a bite? It felt like his whole leg had been torn open, how could it have only been just one bite. 

It hurt like hell to walk, Patrick had tried not screaming as he put pressure on his leg when he’d gotten out of the bed; Dr. Sherwood at least had allowed Patrick to hold on to a nurse’s arm while walking to the waiting room, she’d been very nice whenever he’d accidentally dug his fingers into her arm and had stayed with him. He suspected Dr. Sherwood didn’t quite believe the whole story since again the nurse asked him what happened and he just gave back the same story, he’d been invited to hang out at a cemetery with some of the popular kids and it turned bad. 

“I’m starting to think it was a prank that turned wrong” Patrick confessed as he tapped the floor tiles with his good foot. 

“Kids are assholes” the nurse hummed, she had a reminiscent smile of sorts “those girls seemed nice at least, I doubt they were in on the prank but hey looks are always deceiving. Oh is that your mother?” 

As the nurse asked this Patrick was quickly pulled into a tight hug before his mom held him out at arm’s length “Patrick Martin Vaughn Stump you are grounded” 

Yeah, that sounded fair

*

Apparently, Grace had been given Patrick’s address by the hospital (which made him question whether he’d gone to a good hospital or not, wasn’t that like private stuff?) and had dropped his car off, his mom had already been on the phone when the 3 girls had knocked on the door and given the same story as they did Dr. Sherwood; needless to say Patricia liked Grace for saving her son but was still royally pissed that he’d been hurt. After getting an earful for why he wasn’t going to be leaving the house and better be coming home straight away after school his mom petered off with a heavy sigh before asking-much to his embarrassment-about Grace. 

“She takes Violin classes at school too, we don’t have any classes together” 

Patricia hummed, glaring at someone racing past them “well you're lucky she was there. I don’t know about those other girls but they look like the kind of run when things get bad” 

_They did_ Patrick just shrugged and stared at his shoes “I know mom” 

Once home Patricia helped him upstairs and left to grab dinner, reminding him one last time that he was grounded she left him to his grilled cheese and chips. Patrick let out a heavy and long sigh once the door was shut, carefully he set his plate on his nightstand and dug around in his backpack by the side of his bed. He pulled his phone from the front pocket and plugged it in, he wolfed down his dinner finding himself suddenly starving and when he turned his phone on he found he had a few texts from Grace, a missed call from his mom, and 2 numbers he didn’t recognize. 

_Text me when you wake up, I think your mom might call the cops on us. I don’t blame her if she does_ \- Grace 12:07 AM

_Joanna and Kaylee are staying the night with me, we’re all pretty scared-_ Grace 1:08 AM

_Hey Patrick, I know you might not be up yet or maybe you are and you’re mad at me which I get but can you maybe call Dustin if you have his number? He’s not answering his phone-_ Grace 1:35 AM

Upon reading the first unknown number Patrick rolled his eyes recognizing immediately that it was Dustin. 

_I have nothing to do with what happened tonight, got it?_ \- (xxx)-456-7896

Patrick deleted it and responded to Grace with a simple _I’m fine, going to bed now_ before going to the last unanswered text, it felt like he’d been dropped right back into that zombie nightmare; 

_Hello Patrick, how fast can you run : )?_ \- (xxx) - 289-0000

Was...was it possible to have 4 zeros at the end of a number? Patrick swallowed weakly and deleted the text, he reached around on the floor before plugging his phone back in and curled into a ball hugging his pillow. There was no way he was going to sleep, it really was a useless attempt, but he still shut his eyes and willed his brain to give him some kind of nice dream like he was on a stage making music or maybe even something stupid like cotton candy and unicorns shitting rainbows. None of that happened though, to his annoyance, Patrick opened his eyes again and frowned at his wall as if it were the reason he was awake still, maybe he should try texting Grace again and see if there was anything to talk about? 

_Grace._

Patrick sat up quickly in bed and grabbed his jacket from the floor, he checked both pockets at least 4 times (as if they were deep, they barely fit his hands in them) feeling before throwing it to the floor and flopping back on his bed. The necklace was gone, so it had fallen out of his pocket after all, fucking _great_ ; Grace’s gift was now somewhere in the cemetery but there was no way in hell he was going to go back there and find it, there went 5 bucks out of his pocket- a sudden wave of exhaustion hit him, causing Patrick to jerk up gasping before his head stopped spinning. It was probably the drugs they’d given him at the hospital having their after-affect hit him, that was the most logical thing he could think of without feeding into his paranoia about the supernatural. 

He rolled to his side again and let his eyes fall shut; when Patrick opened them again it felt like a second had passed but there was sunlight peeking through the curtains painting the walls orange, guess he’d fallen asleep after all huh? Patrick sat up and reached over to get his phone, Grace had texted back only saying she was glad he was okay and that she hoped he’d have sweet dreams, he thought about responding again but it wasn’t like that conversation would’ve led anywhere anyway; if she wanted to hang out he had a feeling his mom would’ve said no since he was under her house arrest for however long she saw fit for her son to be grounded and he wasn’t sure if Grace wouldn’t feel guilty staying at his place since he was hurt. 

It was a struggle to walk to the bathroom, his leg stiff as hell from how he slept, and Patrick dreaded removing the bandages but the doctor had asked his mom to make sure they cleaned it daily; his stomach rolled violently once he’d peeled the bandages and gauze off, the bite itself was clean like Dr. Sherwood had said but it was leaking some fluid so the coverings had a gross color to them. There was no blood and as far as Patrick could tell from what Dr. Sherwood had instructed the bite wound didn’t look inflamed, no need to use any peroxide on it, just let it breathe for a few seconds. He glanced at the bathroom mirror and made a face, jeez he looked like shit; dark bags under his face and his hair looked like there was mud dried in it, Dr. Sherwood didn't say he couldn’t take a shower. 

After drying off the bite wound and bandaging himself again Patrick headed downstairs in search of breakfast, mom was nowhere to be found but there was a note on the fridge saying she was out seeing friends and reminding Patrick he was still under house arrest. There were leftovers in the fridge for him so while the spaghetti was heating up he decided to at least check up on the girls to see if they were alright, at least forced house arrest meant he could try working on more of his music-the screech of the default ring tone made him jump and almost drop his phone, despite his mom teaching him to not answer unknown numbers Patrick hit answer. 

“Hello?” 

“ _Stump, cool you’re not dead”_ what the fuck, how did Dustin get his number? “ _Look about last ni-”_

“Keep it to yourself you asshole. Leave me alone in school” Patrick hung up before Dustin could say anything else. 

If he wanted to apologize he could keep it to himself, Patrick had been attacked by...well he wanted to lie to himself and agree that it was a dog but he had a sick feeling that it was in fact _not_ a dog that had attacked him. His phone started blowing up with calls as he headed upstairs with the plate of spaghetti, the calls finally stopped but unfortunately for Patrick it was then replaced with texts, he was going to have to shut his phone off at this rate. It took 2 hours for his phone to finally stop buzzing, 2 _hours_ for fuck’s sake, Patrick only checked it again to see how much the battery had drained; there were a total of 118 texts and 35 missed calls, what the actual hell did Dustin want? 

He skimmed most of the texts, all of them reminding him of a ranting lunatic with several threats and the occasional manipulative attempt at trying to get him to call back; in the later texts though Patrick started to actually read them, the spaghetti was no longer sitting well in his gut. 

_I don’t know what the hell you and those bitches said to the cops but I have no idea where Josh is_

_My mom is pissed dude if I get my car taken away its all your guys’ fault_

_The fucking cops showed up at our house again, they’re still looking for Josh_

_I can’t get a hold of Grace, you call her and see where the fuck he is since Joanna’s his girlfriend or whatever_

Time passed, then came back the lunatic-Esque texts 

_What is the fucking matter with you, I’ll fucking get you you little shit_

_Did you seriously leave a rotting hand at my doorstep? Fcuk you Stump, im calling the cops on you_

_I’m being accused of grave robbing you son of a bitch this is all your fault! You must think you’re so fucking funny leaving a leg in my yard, I’m coming to your house to kick you ass!_

Right, he didn’t even know where Patrick lived; still a copse hand? And a leg too apparently, was Josh actually missing or had he gone back to the cemetery to fuck with everyone? He deleted the rest of the messages before calling Grace, the dread in his stomach started to bubble up again before being squashed by a very tired “ _hello?”_

“Grace hey, just um, checking in. sorry if I woke you up” 

“ _No it’s cool”_ there was shuffling around and Patrick thought he heard a T.V. in the background “ _I was taking a nap actually, I stayed up all night. How’s Saturday been?”_

“It’s been okay, I kinda just woke up a few hours ago…” don’t dance around the topic Patrick “has Dustin been trying to get a hold of you?” 

There was a heavy sigh “ _Yeah, he’s been blowing up all of our phones with calls and texts. Let me guess, he wanted you to get a hold of us?”_

“Josh is missing, and I guess someone left dead body parts at Dustin’s house” 

“ _What?”_ Grace sounded like Dustin hadn’t given her that memo “ _He’s-hang on”_

Patrick waited a few seconds for her to call back, when she did she sounded terrified. 

_“Dude what the fuck, I just thought the cops would only be at the hospital because of the loose dog”_

Wait...did...did Grace really think a dog attacked him? “Did, did you give police a statement?” 

“ _You didn’t? Oh, you were probably knocked out stiff right? Sorry, but yeah they showed up at the hospital because some people saw us haul ass out of the cemetery and asked us some questions. I didn’t know Josh was missing, I don’t know how Jo’s gonna react. Has anything else been said to you?”_

“Not really, besides the corpse parts I mentioned he just threatened to come kick my ass and then some”

Grace snorted and there was the sound of multiple voices in the background then, Patrick guessed she moved somewhere else “ _don’t worry, he doesn’t know where you live as far as I know. Still, that’s really worrying about Josh but he’s been known to just kind of drop off the grid before, really I think that’s why Jo hasn’t been-sorry relationship drama isn’t your thing is it?”_

“Honestly I could care less” as harsh as that sounded Patrick decided that he didn’t want anything to do with this group anymore “but um, is she going to be okay?” 

“ _I don’t know, I hope so. Josh can be a shithead, you saw first hand, but they’re still a couple so...I don’t know, I hope he turns up”_

“Maybe he put the corpse parts at Dustin’s place, is he that kinda dude?” 

Grace’s laugh was bitter “ _oh my god why didn’t I think of that? He totally fucking is. Hang on Patrick”_

“Um, okay?” he stared at his phone before putting it on speaker and set it down, awkwardly Patrick glanced around his room before jumping at the loud bang that came from the phone “um-Grace?” 

There was more scraping and shuffling before the phone was probably being picked up “ _What does Grace mean that Dustin said there was body parts?”_

“Um-what? Kaylee?” 

“ _No shit! Ow, Grace, fuck off and let me talk to him!”_ there was the sound of scuffling and shouting, the phone once again being dropped until Kaylee picked it up again “ _do you have a notebook or something? You need to go see this lady, the fact you got attacked last night is bad news enough Patrick but we seriously fucked with something bad”_

In the background, Patrick heard Grace yelling at Kaylee to not scare Patrick, not really knowing why Patrick typed out the address Kaylee gave him on a quick word doc before again being told he needed to see this lady. She hung up before he could talk to Grace again and no one tried calling back, Patrick stared at the address for a few seconds before deciding to search it up; the results that came up were a building that looked like the stereotype for a Hocus Pocus-esque movie, Patrick clicked on a link to find that it was owned by a woman that did tarot readings and had a pagan store in the same building. Frowning Patrick scrolled until he found a number, he was about to call it when something fell off his shelf causing him to scream and jump which unfortunately caused a jolt of pain in his calf. 

It took a few seconds to un-tense his body before he could slide off his bed to see what fell, Patrick groaned seeing several of his CDs had fallen and knelt to pick them up but paused. Amongst his CDs was an empty case, cracked to hell but somehow still holding together with sharpie written on the inside that he vaguely remembered; loud noises, people talking way too loud clearly sloshed, the smell of cigarettes and reeking of weed, Kevin had been there too and maybe a girlfriend at the time (squinting his eyes enough he did recall a red-head named Josie that had been super sweet to him but not so nice to Kevin). A show...he was pretty sure Kevin had gotten someone to write something on this case at a show he’d taken Patrick to with Josie when he’d been...6th grade, so probably 12 or 11, he remembered Kevin freaking out after he realized the smell of pot had clung to Patrick and he’d hosed his little brother off in their front yard before sneaking Patrick back inside through the back door. 

Patrick frowned and rolled his eyes, what was he even trying to remember anyway? He put the CDs back in order but kept the broken case out and sat back on his bed again, there wasn’t even a CD in it so had he kept it for sentimental value for Kevin or had his brother left it in his room? He squinted at the writing again, the handwriting looked like chicken scratch honestly-

_“I don’t know! I’ve never talked to him!”_

Patrick made some kind of a strangled noise and threw the case across his room, it hit the floor before it could hit the wall which was probably better after he threw it Patrick had panicked at the thought of it shattering into pieces but lucky for him it even landed on a dirty pile of clothes. Now Patrick remembered, he _had_ met Pete but only briefly; after Josie had gotten annoyed that Kevin had gone to a show for music instead of sneaking off to make out she’d met up with some guy and had left Patrick standing alone by the bar, Kevin had gotten swept away by some other teens talking about music so Patrick had no clue where his brother had been when a security guy had grabbed him demanding to know how Patrick snuck in. 

Little middle schooler Patrick had stumbled over his words trying to explain his brother’s girlfriend had left him when a pretty pissed off voice stopped the guy from dragging him out. 

“ _Get off the kid!”_ a guy that was a little taller than Patrick stomped up and pried the security’s hand off Patrick’s arm, pulling the younger closer to him “ _so fucking what if he snuck in? You know how many kids you end up missing that did the same”_

The guy’s face had turned red “ _I’m just doing my job, Pete”_

Little Patrick’s heart had almost exploded at both embarrassment and excitement that Pete Wentz was defending him, again Pete told the guy to piss off leaving just the two of them alone. The excitement had quickly been replaced by mortifying embarrassment, Pete had walked him over to a somewhat less crowded area and started asking him the basic questions; his name, if he was alone, if he had a ride home or not, none of which Patrick answered very clearly due to looking at his shoes and mumbling all his answers. Kevin had shown up-or rather had literally run into Patrick pulling him into a hug since Josie had made up some fucked up lie that he’d been dragged away by older boys-and unlike Patrick had managed to have an actual conversation with Pete that wasn’t hella lame. 

Pete hadn’t been too happy though that Kevin had left Patrick alone with Josie though “ _I’m sure as hell not one to talk about girlfriends dude but your little brother doesn’t even look old enough to rent a car and you just left him?”_

_“It was an accident”_ Kevin had admitted and said he wasn’t going to do it again, Patrick didn’t doubt it since he saw his brother’s eyes were red with tears

The rest of the memory was blurred but Patrick could vaguely recall that Kevin had mentioned how Patrick was amazing with instruments and Pete had said something that made Kevin shove Patrick around while laughing, he was pretty sure it was a thing of praise that Pete said? Either way it resulted in Patrick going home with a CD Pete had grabbed from his own car and he’d scribbled something on it. 

The CD case that now lay in some dirty shirts. 

Patrick swallowed weakly and went back to looking at his laptop, the address of the shop stared back at him in blocky blue letters like they were beckoning him. He scrolled a little ways down further of the page to see their hours before scribbling down the address on a piece of old homework, shoving it into his jean pocket grabbing his phone and heading out of his room; it wasn’t like he had friends to hang out with anyway so what was a few more days of being grounded?


End file.
